Categorization

A cloud of flour filled the room, coating everything with a faint layer of white powder. Spike had spilled a bag of flour. The kitchen was already a mess with batter all over the counter. The sink was full used bowls with leftover mix in them. It could all be cleaned up after. What mattered to Spike was that the cake was made. He was baking a regular cake. He would have liked to have jewels in them, but he knew they were expensive and wanted to work on his baking skills. He plans include jewels in his recipe when he gets better.

A voice called from upstairs. It was Twilight.

"Spike? Can you find me a few books on genetic disorders?"

Of course she was asking for a book. He would have to get back to his baking later. He knew this would take a while, as the non-fiction books were sorted alphabetically. It was definitely useful when looking for a particular book, but not when looking for new books on a specific topic. This was not uncommon to be asked by Twilight, so he promptly responded.

"Sure thing, Twilight," he replied.

He knew the first thing to do was to look under "G" for genetic disorders. It was a strange topic, but Twilight has read about weirder. Tilting his head sideways to read the book titles, he checked for any books on genetic disorders. Unfortunately, there were no books with the name "Genetic Disorders". This meant he would have to look through every book, since he knew no other keywords on genetic disorders.

Spike was proficient at this; having done this several times. He started back at "A" and made his way down. He was able to quickly skim through the books because he had memorized many of the book titles already. He read every title each letter at a time. After a several minutes, Spike reached "P". This was taking a while, but he finally found a book, "The Pony Genome: Genetic Disorders". There was a series in the library on the pony genome.

That took longer than it should have. Was he the only one who noticed the inefficiency of alphabetized sorting? Surely Twilight must have noticed something. A system organizing these books by subject would make much more sense. Spike still wanted to finish his baking, but changing the way Twilight sorted her books might make his life a lot easier. He decided to talk to Twilight.

"Twilight?" Spike asked. He was holding the genetic disorders book in his claw.

"Oh good Spike, you found me the book I needed," Twilight responded. She grabbed the book and started reading it.

Spike almost forgot about the Pony Genome book when approaching Twilight. He had other issues to consult first.

"Twilight, why are our books sorted so badly?" Spike asked.

"What? But we had re-shelving day just last week? They should all be in order," Twilight refuted.

"They are all in order, but that order makes it hard to find books. Why don't we sort by category or something?" he complained.

"While sorting by category is nice, I don't want to change Ponyville's library. It was sorted like this when we first came here." she replied.

"Yeah but I knew nothing about genetic disorders so how would I know I needed to find a book about 'pony genome' under 'P' to find this book," Spike explained. He was strangely eager to have the system changed.

"Spike, we can organize by category if you'd like. I'm kinda busy right now. If you design a better system, we can change it." Twilight explained. She was hoping Spike would not come up with a better system, since it would change Ponyville's library. She knew Spike was not at all a lazy dragon, so there was a high likelihood for this to happen. This might be a change for the better anyways.

"You won't be disappointed," Spike replied.

Spike almost felt that he took things a bit far. Maybe it was not a big deal that the books were sorted alphabetically. It seems rather boring to sort books. Either way, he's tasked himself with something to do, and he cannot fail as an assistant. He sat sat down, took a quill and an empty scroll and started planning. He was doing a lot of writing, and it was taking a long time. Eventually, he fell asleep on the table.

Twilight found Spike sleeping there. She could hear his light snoring. She also saw the scroll and quill, and remembered Spike wanted to sort the library. She was a bit surprised that Spike was working so hard. It shows how loyal of an assistant Spike can be. He looked peaceful sleeping, though he could not just stay there. She carried Spike gently with her magic and brought him to bed. She tucked him in, and said goodnight to Spike.

Twilight would still have to stay up. She was also curious as to how Spike's plans were going. They were not well written, but the concept was great. Sorting by category would really make finding new books easier. She could remember all the times she had to look for books but they were sorted alphabetically. "The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide" was the most unpleasantly memorable. So Twilight tried to improve upon Spike's system. Books would have specific IDs that correspond to their category. The first number would indicate the subject, the next number would indicate a more specific classification, and the last numbers would make the book ID unique to all other books in that category.

This system is definitely great. Spike really was her number one assistant. Twilight felt that she needed to show a little appreciation for Spike. A small get together with some friends in celebration of Spike being a devoted assistant would be a great idea.

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